Bruce Auster

Doby PhotographyNPR

Bruce Auster is NPR's National Security Editor. He's headed the unit since it was established in 2008. Auster directs NPR's coverage of international security issues from Washington – including stories involving the U.S. military, the National Security Council, and the intelligence community. As National Security editor Auster, co-ordinates coverage across NPR News desks and beats. He works closely with the Foreign Desk, Digital Media, and with reporters, editors, and producers on the National Desk.

Before taking on that role, Auster was the Senior Supervising Editor of NPR's Morning Edition for five years. In that role, he defined the editorial agenda for the show, identifying subjects and specific stories Morning Edition should be covering and then helping bring those stories to the air. Auster worked with Morning Edition hosts Steve Inskeep and Renee Montagne to bring listeners interviews with leading political, international, and cultural figures.

Before joining NPR, Auster spent sixteen years as a reporter and editor at US News and World Report. He was the magazine's Pentagon correspondent for five years, covering stories from the first Gulf War to the early years of the Clinton administration. Later he did a stint covering national security and the intelligence community. Auster also served as US News's White House correspondent for two years, covering the Clinton White House and the 1996 presidential campaign. He made the jump from reporting to editing at the magazine: He was deputy national and foreign editor and later became deputy investigations editor. In that position, Auster helped direct the magazine's award-winning reporting. The investigative team broke many big stories – the subjects included Pentagon weapons scandals; billion-dollar waste in student loan programs, and the Bush administration's flawed intelligence before the Iraq war.

In New York, a jury has found a British imam guilty on 11 counts of terrorism. Abu Hamza al-Masri was a fiery speaker at a London mosque and he's seen as an inspiration to people who later became familiar names in terror cases. People like attempted shoe bomber Richard Reid, who visited that mosque. Now, after a relatively quick trial, he's been found guilty, like several of his followers before him.

An American diplomat got in trouble for saying something, well, undiplomatic.

Victoria Nuland, a top State Department official, thought she was having a private phone conversation. She was speaking about developments in Ukraine with the U.S. ambassador to that country, Geoffrey Pyatt. And she was speaking bluntly, even using a not-so-choice word about America's European allies.